An Open Letter to Judge George H. King, United States District Court, on the Death of Peter McWilliams

Mr. Peter McWilliams has now died, thanks to his inability to use the anti-nausea drug that your rulings denied him.

I do not know whether you personally really care about this or not, whether you were ever actually concerned about Mr. McWilliams' health, whether considerations of justice or humanity ever crossed your mind. However, if you did care and really thought that your hands were tied by the law, I find this little less disturbing than if you were completely insensitive or even wanted him dead.

Is it your job just to follow orders? Is it your job to ignore legal principles, like medical necessity, in order to effect compliance with the most obviously unjust requirements of imperfect laws? Is it your job, when you have taken an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, to continually, blindly enforce laws that are patently unconstitutional?

You, sir, have done evil. The excuse you may offer would not pass muster either at Nuremberg, before the Founding Fathers of the United States, or on the basis of what many would expect to be the terms of Divine Judgment. At the very least, you are not a judge who will ever be able to say that you always did what you could for the cause of justice and humanity.